Tina's Daily Blog: Prayers Needed

Friday, October 10, 2008

Prayers Needed

I'm off work today. I'm supposed to be in Jacksonville watching Chris and Jonathan compete in their quartet competition, but they pulled out at the last minute. Jonathan had been sick the past few weeks so they were not vocally ready yet with the songs. Just as well... I wasn't keen on going up there and spending all that money on a hotel room, event tickets and food - especially if they were going to sing the same two songs they just competed with a few months ago. So I took the vacation day today and am going to go visit my mom in a few minutes.

In the meantime, I thought I'd get in a quick blog to ask you all to say a quick prayer for Kayla.

A month or so ago she had a sore throat. I looked and her tonsils were swollen, so I took her to the pediatrician. While on the way, my sister Katie told me I should ask them about her hair falling out while I was there. Good idea, might as well kill two birds with one stone at this doctor's visit! So we did - and he ordered some blood work to find out what was going on. He said she would probably need to see a dermatologist for the hair falling out, but the blood test might give us some clues as to what was going on. Good stuff. She didn't need to go 'fasting' because they weren't looking for blood sugar or anything - so we went on afternoon last week.

The Doctor himself called me on Monday. I used to work for this group of Doctors and my first thought... if the Doctor is calling me and not his nurse... this can't be good.

He proceeds to tell me that her blood work came back abnormal. "Good," I thought, "this will explain why her hair is falling out." And I even said something to that nature to the doctor. He said the abnormalities had nothing to do with her hair falling out. The tests they ran for her hair falling out were normal. What came back abnormal was her blood sugar (it was high) - however, she wasn't fasting -- so he wants her to come back and do the test when she's had nothing to eat to make sure it's okay. He's pretty sure it'll be fine then.

The other abnormality was in her white blood count. Something called "eosinophils". It was more than three times the normal range. He told me that this typically meant one of three things. Usually it was either:
1) The test was just flat-out wrong. The only way to know that was to re-test her. We'll do that when she comes back fasting. We are doing that tomorrow (Saturday)
2) She has some really bad allergies. Now... if this were Kayte getting this news, I'd be like "oh yeah.. surely this is it! Kayte is allergic to EVERYTHING! But, Kayla?
3) Three is the not-so-good part. Three is that there is something else going on. Something like a tumor or Leukemia. This is probably NOT it. It's MUCH more likely an allergy we just don't know about. But still... that third possibility even being on the table -- it's just -- terrifying.

While the doctor was talking my ears were ringing. I kept thinking about Julie's history. Asthma/Allergies. Diabetic. Then -- of course -- Ron. Ron who died of Leukemia. Now... Ron isn't Kayla's birth father, so it's silly really to think that it could be in any way related. And -- even if he WERE her birth father -- the chemicals from the dirty bombs in the Gulf War gave him Leukemia, not a family history... so.... stop thinking about it Tina! Yet I couldn't process what he was telling me.

So much so that I had to call the nurse back and ask her to explain everything to me all over again so that I could write it down correctly and make sure that I had it all right.

On that same day - I get a phone call from my mom. Caller ID tells me it's from Tampa General Hospital. No biggie - she works there - it always says that. She says "Don't worry... I'm at the hospital." Now... I'm still fuzzy from the news about Kayla, and I say "Yeah, mom - well you work there, so why would I worry?" She then tells me "No, I mean I am IN the hospital."

Gulp

She was working and something happened with her heart. She wouldn't get into details with me because she didn't want me to worry. She said they were just going to keep her for observation to make sure she was okay. She tells me NOT to come up and see her... she'd be fine... but she just wanted me to know.

(I might add that while I was at bible study she leaves me a voice mail telling me that Julie her "favorite daughter" went up to see her. Even though mom said not to. Yeah, okay mom. Next time you tell me not to do something... not to tell someone you are in the hospital... let's see how well that secret is kept. LOL )

They kept mom a few days and she's now home. But the news hit me hard on Monday.

I remember walking into an office where my boss was and saying "I don't think today could get any worse" and he SAID --- you really shouldn't say that! I kinda thought he might be right.

Just as I was leaving for the night I get the call that my little sister, Kayte, who is in Colorado with her family and is supposed to be flying home soon, has been at the ER with their baby (our God Daughter, Bella). She had been a little sick while up there. They were shopping and all the sudden, little Bella just started having a seizure. Can you even imagine? I can't. All I could think was my words "I don't think today could get any worse". She's home and fine now - she just has those seizures whenever she starts to run a high fever. Poor little thing. :o(

The other thing I'd ask for prayers about is - jobs. Prayers for Chris's job - that work will continue to come in and that he will be paid for the work he does (he has to invoice customers after the work is done... and then wait to be paid!). And prayers that my search for a job will be what and and where God leads me to go.

Thank you all!

"There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle."
-Albert Einstein-

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In A Nutshell:

Here is a letter I sent to Dr. Phil which really sums everything up:
I am married to my high-school sweetheart (20 years this August), with two wonderful children (Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13). I have two sisters, both younger – I call them “my good sister” and “my bad sister”. My good sister is – well, good! Normal in every way. The bad one, Julie, has been in trouble since she was a kid. As a baby she cried all of the time. As a teenager she was in trouble all of the time. At the age of 14 or so I remember that she had run away from home to live with a grown man in Atlanta. This was one of many run a ways. As a teenager, she provided sexual favors to boys in school, as well as teachers. As a young adult she was arrested for prostitution. She’s done drugs ranging from marijuana to crack. She was diagnosed early on as bi-polar with personality disorder. She’s also a serious cutter to the point where she no longer hid the cuts. She’s cut things like “Ronald Cecchinni” into her arm… and “Fuck you Dr. XXX” on her stomach, in large letters. Julie is also a diagnosed sex-addict. She’s also recently (in the past year) begun ‘huffing’. (I honestly believe that this huffing has caused some permanent damage) She is currently 36yo.
Julie lost her husband Ron a year and a half ago as a result of Leukemia and Kidney Disease which the military attributed to his serving in the Gulf War. He left behind three children – Kayla who is now 15, Justin who is now 14 and Kayte who is now 13. Even when Julie was married, her psychiatric problems persisted. She has been hospitalized literally hundreds of times over the years. However, when her husband was alive, he would take care of the kids when Julie was mentally out of control. After Ron died, Julie lost control of the kids and her life. She began to spiral out of control, having pot parties at her home (to the point where the kids said a door would open and a cloud of smoke would come bellowing out of the room), smoking weed with her own kids, having sex all over the house with different men all the time, allowing young men (19 yo) to sleep over with her oldest daughter (only 14 at the time), and allowing Gang members to live in her home (she said she felt ‘safe’ with them there). In addition, she was attempting suicide daily, overdosing on medications hoping to not wake up the next morning. Mind you all of this while she was seeing her Psychologist every week and Psychiatrist once a month. Both of these Doctors knew what was going on at home, neither of them reported it to the proper authorities. I have even been told by one of them that he was told, by Julie, that she ‘heard voices telling her to hurt the children’ but that she was proud that she could ignore the voices. Still, these Doctors reported nothing.
I should add here that it was at some point in this period of time in Julie’s life when her children began suicide watches over their mom… each one taking turns to sit in a room with her at all hours (night and day) because their mom was less-likely to hurt herself while they were here. However, it didn’t always work – Julie constantly took pills in front of them trying to either dope herself up or overdose, and she would even cut herself in front of the kids.
Finally one day, she woke up furious that her last suicide attempt didn’t work. She got violent with her oldest daughter, police were called, and finally DCF was called. (I would like to add that we (other family members) had called DCF in the past to report things, but some of the cases were ‘unfounded’ and one other time the fled the state knowing CF only had jurisdiction in Florida.) DCF removed the children from the home in November 2005 and I gained custody of the Children shortly thereafter.
There are lots of things I could add here about my sister, DCF, and the horrible Foster Care or Custodial Care program we are involved with. However, that is not my main reason for writing to you.
Kayte, the youngest, seems to be adjusting pretty well. She has a tendency to trivialize what her mom has done and the seriousness of it, but I think that is normal given that it is her mom. Kayte was in counseling, but she feels it’s ‘a waste of time’.
Justin, the middle child, is okay. As a young boy I'm told he was a terror. He used to hit his mother and at one point (only 6yo) tried to jump off a building to kill himself. Since then, his anger has turned in to an endless smothering of love and caring. He does everything for his mom… from getting her whatever she needs to rubbing her feet and back. Justin has seen a psychiatrist since moving in with me who felt that his issues were brought on by trauma. It was also at that visit with the psychiatrist that he confided in myself and the Doctor that he had suicidal thoughts often while living at home with his mom in her ‘state of being’ after his dad died. However, since he moved in with me he has done so much better (and continues to improve daily) that she didn’t feel he even needed counseling at this time. He would, however, need counseling before he was reunited with his mom.
Kayla, the oldest, has serious issues. She is also currently in counseling but feels that it is ‘a waste of time’. Kayla has always lied and stolen things. Family members feel sorry for her because you can tell that she doesn’t really mean any ill will by it, but it’s been ‘the way she is’ for a very long time. By far her biggest problems are lying and her need for approval by men (young and old).
Since the kids have moved in with us, my husband and I have set up rules. The kids already had myspace accounts, so we set ground rules for it. 1) We needed the login names and passwords. 2) Profiles must be set to private. 3) The only people they were allowed to have on their friends list was people that they actually knew. When Kayla’s list climbed over 300, and she was found to have inappropriate conversations (wanting to sneak out and ‘hook up’ with young men), we made everyone cut their list down to 30 friends, which included myself. 4) All vulgar language and inappropriate photos would come off immediately and would be monitored by myself at any given time. At times, they try to put up ‘sexy’ pictures which immediately need to come down.
However recently I have found that she has multiple website things going on in an attempt to pick up young men. I'll outline a few here so that you understand the gravity of the situation: 1) I found her 'normal' myspace account set to 'public view'. She has over 11,000 profile views(meaning people looking at her pictures and wanting to know more about her). I had reset it to private many times, but she keeps going back and resetting it to public. 2) I have found another myspace account which she went by the name 'Shannon' and used it to pick up young men, tease them, then later tell them that she was 'taken' but refer them to her 'cousin, Kayla'. She'd then give them all of Kayla's information. Of course thiswas also set to public. 3) I have found another social network website that was like myspace in which she had ONLY men (mostly from other states) as her 'friends' whom she corresponded with. The emails back and forth basically said the same thing as all of the others... more on that in #4 - only these were guys that not only did she not know, but they were not even in the area! 4) All accounts that I have found had basically the same thing... her emailing guys wanting to know if she was pretty, if they wanted to 'hook up', talking about going to their 'crib' or meeting up with them somewhere, and constantly seeking approval and affirmation from these guys.
I believe she gets this from her mom. And the sad thing is, if you met her, you would love her. She is truly a GREAT kid… but she has serious issues. I’ve described to you Julie’s behavior and Kayla’s seems to be the same way. Neither can make decisions on their own that are ‘the right thing to do’, and both lack the understanding of simple values, morals and ethics. I could go into so many examples. How do I describe the utterly amazing difference between Julie’s parenting style and my own?
I know... Both Julie and I have myspace accounts set up to ‘monitor’ the kids. To illustrate the difference between Julie and myself, here is something that Julie and I both put on our myspace accounts. You are supposed to put something 'about yourself' by your picture. Here is mine: "I'm 38 years old. I have two amazing kids, Amanda who is 20 and Jonathan who is 13. I have great husband, Chris. I love to sing - and have been singing in Toast of Tampa Show Chorus for 10 years. I'm raising my nieces and nephew (12, 13 and 14). I love God and my family."And here is Julie's: "I am who I am and if you dont like me for me........FUCK YOU........ Plus if you dont like me for me....... Im gunna tell my kids and there gunna kick yer ass!!!!!!!!!!!!"
Here’s the other dilemma we are having; the two girls are in counseling that is costing me $25 EACH in co-payments every time they go. The State of Florida provides NO financial support to me as a relative caregiver, other than providing the three kids with Medicaid. They received small SSI checks because of their dad’s death, but it barely covers the food they consume. The DCF worker, having spoke with the girls and being told that therapy is ‘a waste of time’, has referred me to a clinic that DCF uses for cases such as this to seek mental care for Kayla (aswell as the others). However, the kids have TriCare as their primary insurance because their dad died from Military causes. TriCare requires the co-payment, regardless of the Medicaid secondary. Having said that, please understand that I worked in referrals in a primary care physician’s office for 16 years… I totally ‘get’ what is required for primary and secondary insurances and all the red tape. But because of the uniqueness of this situation, the kids are suffering!
I should also point out here that I have the kids for an indefinite period of time. Right now Julie is doing things that she has been told to do to get the kids back. However, she is still awaiting a court ordered detailed Psychiatric exam to determine if she can EVER parent again. Even if that Psychiatrist feels she can parent again, she’ll most likely need to be ‘clean’ and ‘episode-free’ for 6 months to a year minimum. In addition, Julie is only allowed supervised visits and one phone call a day. This came about because of her inappropriate behavior when she was with the kids and because when she was allowed to call any time she’d call 10 + times a day.
The other problem with Julie ever getting her children back is that… she doesn’t understand what she did wrong. She parents as if she were 15-years old herself. If anyone has ever done something bad and been able to ‘keep’ their kids, she sees no reason she can’t do it. She brought her daughter at the age of 13 in for a HUGE tattoo on the small of her back. It’s Tigger flipping ‘the bird’ with her gang name under it. She was also planning on getting a large tattoo on her 12yo before the kids were taken. Again, she sees nothing wrong with any of her past behavior.
So, you see, I could have these children for the rest of their teenage years. I honestly don’t know where to turn to get them the help they need.
I feel as if I am in a psychiatric nightmare and I just can’t wake up. Eight months ago I was at home, my biggest ‘kid worry’ was if my son was going to get good grades on his report card. Now I find myself in a crux worried about whether or not the lessons I teach them, this late in their young life, are going to be enough to turn these kids around and help them to be productive adults in the near future.

Tina's Daily Blog

Friday, October 10, 2008

Prayers Needed

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